His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas
Secretary General
Economic Community of West Africa States
Monrovia, Liberia

His Excellency

The following civil society organizations would like
to welcome you to Monrovia and express our gratitude
for taking up the time to intervene and assist the
Liberian Government reach an agreement on the Electoral
Reform Act.

We support the position of the National Transitional
Government of Liberia (NTGL) that the Act which was
passed by the National Transitional Legislative Assembly
poses serious difficulty to conduct free and fair
elections come October 2005. Our support is based
on the fact that the current Government can not find
the resources require to underwrite the cost of a
census and there is not sufficient time to conduct
a National Census before October 2005.

We are also in support of the compromise agreement
reached by the NTGL, the National Election Commission
and the Leadership of the NTLA regarding the apportioning
of the 64 seats in the House of Representatives. This
compromise agreement is reflective of the prevailing
circumstances in the country and accommodates political
concerns related to representation in the Legislature.
The agreement stipulates that each county would have
two seats in the House of Representatives and the
remaining 34 seats will be apportioned on the basis
of the number of registered voters within a designated
voting precinct. This arrangement contains elements
of the republican form of government espoused by our
Constitution and meets nominal acceptable standards
of democracy.

Sir, the various organizations also wish to express
their concern that special mechanisms/provisions for
women involvement in the political process be central
to the Electoral Reform Act, including the preambular
statement in relations to women participation and
the need to adopt a quota system that ensures 30%
of electoral positions are apportioned to women.

We would therefore respectfully like to call on you
to use your good offices and convince the National
Transitional Legislative Assembly to accept the proposed
NEC Legislation alongside the compromise agreement
mentioned above and address the role of women in the
October 2005 Elections.